About the Author

 Shelia Kaye Diaz is a survivor, who grew up as a migrant farm worker, living in abandoned houses, and camping by rivers, from Arizona to Washington State. In the winter

she lived in the San Joaquin Valley, where she attended 19 elementary schools, and five high schools before graduating at the age of 15.She raised two sons, while working full time, going to school full time, and caring for her mother. After years of hard work,

she received her degree in English, then education and became an English teacher, in South Central Los Angeles.

She is currently retired and spends her time reading, writing, and volunteering. She has published poetry in various small presses, as well as professional journals such as California English, and has read her poetry at different public universities in California. She has also published non-fiction articles in North of San Francisco, and California English. Her time in Los Angeles taught her many things, and she believes it is not her titles, or positions held, but the number of students who passed through her life that taught her what is important.

It was after the loss of 29 students and her youngest son to gang violence that she decided to write about her experiences as a teacher and a single woman trying to find happiness in a world that didn't leave

time for anything but work, and her sons. She has lived and worked in Colombia over the last thirty one years. As a former District Level Facilitator, as well as a California Reading and Literature. Fellow, and Facilitator with Center X, UCLA, and the statewide Literacy Initiative, but considers her most important achievement to be helping thousands of students learn to value themselves, and to feel valued.

 

Shelia holds a B.A. in English and Theater, and a Credential in English from UCLA and CSU Dominguez Hills. She has traveled extensively and has been writing since she was nine years old.

If Shelia isn't writing, or traveling, you can find her making cakes, or pies to take to Cake 4 Kids, a non-profit that delivers birthday cakes for children who wouldn't otherwise have a cake. Baking is her meditation and is another way she travels the world.